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Rethinking Computer Science Education
- dozzie 10y ago> Programmers and software engineers are in very high demand these days — we need a lot more of them, and we want them now. A Computer Science degree takes 3-4 years in most schools, which is way too long and costs too much. We need more construction workers, but civil engineering degree takes too long and costs too much. Do you see the stupidity of this sentence? Once upon a time there was this concept of vocational schools. It was later replaced with colleges and universities, which by their very nature are far from industrial setting and thus can't teach what's necessary in the industry.
- blueatlas 10y agoBut we are not taking civil engineers and putting them in construction jobs. We are, however, taking computer scientists and putting them in programming roles. And there is high demand for those programmers, weather you want to call them programmers, software engineers, computer scientists, or whatever. Today, in most cases, a computer science degree doesn't translate into the skills to be an effective programmer out of the chute, but that is where the demand is.
- dozzie 10y ago> We are, however, taking computer scientists and putting them in programming roles. And how a computer scientist would make a decent programmer? He wasn't trained in the craft, he was trained in different direction. He could just as easily skip studying to get a degree and start training under an experienced programmer. > And there is high demand for those programmers Yes. Note that the industry needs programmers, not scientists (or even would-be scientists). Who the industry looks for and who it needs (judging from jobs that are offered) is a mismatch, of course. This is what I called the stupidity.